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Translator of Demian by Hermann Hesse into English - an interlinear translation for German students and those who want to see the original text.
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Fluent in Japanese, Korean. Proficient in Mandarin, Turkish, German, French, Portuguese, others.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

An article from Welt today gives a few numbers on the lives that could be saved in Germany from cancer with better health and more active prevention. According to the article total of 180,000 fewer cases could be reduced each year, or 70,000 lives. Some info from the article:

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With exercise, a healthy diet and no smoking, Germany would end up with 180,000 fewer (out of 450,000) cancer diagnoses per year. The leading causes of cancer are tobacco consumption, too much alcohol, overexposure to the sun, and obesity.

The article has a few charts that are easy enough to understand even if you don't know German, but the basic information from them is as follows:

Chart 1: 36% of men smoked in 1995, in 2009 this was 33.2%. For women it was 21.6% in 1995, 22.3% in 2009. A slight increase overall but nothing to celebrate. The chart shows smoking rates by state as well.

Chart 2: cases of teenagers going to the hospital for alcohol consumption continue to rise. 159 in 2004, then 199, 203, 244, 274, and finally 290 cases in 2009. No improvement whatsoever.

Chart 3: shows the number of fitness clubs in Germany and members. In 1992 there were 2 million fitness club members, now it is 7.07 million. Number of fitness clubs has also increased from 421 in 1992 to 1191 now.

Chart 4: obesity by state. The east is more obese on average, least obese parts of the country are Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen.

Chart 5: Uninteressant.

Chart 6: payment for health care as a percent of the budget by country. Germany is at 10.5%. The US tops the list at 16%, France is next at 11.2%.